


you can be king again

by Pomfry



Series: I am the same, I'm the same (I'm trying to change) [2]
Category: Servamp (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Child Abuse, Crushes, Dark, F/M, Gen, Hugh is a good older brother, Human Experimentation, Hyde is only six let him be, Kuro is a very tired older brother, One-Sided Relationship, Protective Kuro (Servamp)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 01:22:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14706452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomfry/pseuds/Pomfry
Summary: Hyde is six - almost seven, he tells anyone who would listen - when he meets Ophelia. She’s beautiful, with blonde hair like Lily but lighter, and her eyes are a pretty blue. Not unlike Kuro’s hair, he thinks.





	you can be king again

**Author's Note:**

> I admit, this fic is...very dark. Please caution yourselves before you read it.
> 
> Ophelia gets shot in the face. Hyde gets a full view of it.
> 
> I don't describe it, mainly because Hyde was panicking, but it's there, and please caution yourselves against it.
> 
> Also, Creator changed her eye color hahaaaaaaaa. Creative license is GREAT.

Hyde is six - almost seven, he tells anyone who would listen - when he meets Ophelia. She’s beautiful, with blonde hair like Lily but lighter, and her eyes are a pretty blue. Not unlike Kuro’s hair, he thinks as she reaches through the bars of the cage to touch his hand.

“Hello,” she says softly, a trembling smile on her lips. “My name’s Ophelia. What’s yours?”

The way she says things has a lilt to it, like she raises the end of each word. Hyde loves it, loves the way she looks at him.

“My name’s Hyde,” he replies, reaching back. She giggles, her voice choked, and her pretty yellow dress has stains on it. Hyde frowns at it. It shouldn’t be dirty. Ophelia shouldn’t be here. Here is for Hyde and his family and the Creator’s sick grin.

Hyde’s been here for three days, though, with only pain and a cold gaze for company. His throat hurts from screaming and his wings ache. Creator said something about him being weaker than the ones before him, and how that burns. Hyde knows that Kuro is the strongest - he’s the one who fights back when Creator tries to take one of them, and he sometimes  _ wins. _ But -

But Hyde is strong, too. And maybe he can prove it with this girl who smiles at him like the sun he has never seen. He’s so very lonely. He misses his siblings and maybe - maybe he can bring Ophelia back there, to where Kuro can wrap her up in his blanket and protect her the way he does to Hyde. He just needs to protect her long enough to get her back to the room.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, and she flinches, curls up.

“My parents,” she says, voice choked. “They took me here and gave the man money. They told him to make me invincible. I don’t even know what that means.”

Hyde does. He knows a lot of words - Creator had put in books filled with plays and words.

“I means untouchable. Unbeatable,” he says. “It means you can’t be broken.” Kuro is like that. He’s so strong, so reliable despite the fact he sleeps all day because he’s always there when they need him. If Freyja almost gets taken and Lily starts to cry, Kuro is there, sweeping her away and putting himself in her place with nothing more than a  _ take care of each other while I’m gone. _

“But I don’t want to be that.” Ophelia looks so confused. “I just want to go home.”

Hyde smiles charmingly, in the way Hugh has teased him about, and takes her hand. Their cages are close enough to be able to do that. When he’s in here with his siblings, they can never do that, not even when Lily is sobbing his eyes out from the pain and Hyde wants to go pick him up. Lily is big for his age, and Hyde can hardly pick him up anymore.   
“It will be okay,” he says. “I’ll protect you.”

Ophelia smiles at him, and Hyde feels like nothing could pull him back down to Earth.

 

\--

 

Creator tosses Ophelia into the room with Hyde, the blank one with white walls and nothing to do. His family is on the other side, he knows, but the walls are soundproof. He’s shouted himself hoarse trying to reach Kuro, but nothing had reached his older brother. He hates this room. It’s so boring and silent and he  _ hates it, hates it  _ **_hates it._ **

Ophelia is shaking, her dress stained even more, and he can see the way she clutches at her back. Maybe her wings are coming in? But he’s never seen someone as old as her get wings before.

“It’ll be okay,” he says, clutching at his scarf. World End - he hasn’t decided on a name yet, not like the rest of them - made it out of the blanket he’d outgrown, and it’s ragged at the edges but he loves it all the same. “We never stay in here long, maybe a week or two. And - with you here, we have something to do!”

“Like what?” she asks through gritted teeth, her nails very nearly clawing.

“Well, I can scratch your back,” he hedges, and watches as he face lights up and he scoots over to him.

“Please do,” she says, and turns her back to him.

Hyde smiles, tensing his fingers into claws and scratching her back. “How old are you?” he says curiously, moving to where he knows a wing should be. She relaxes, back slouching, and he can hear the believed breath that escapes her lips.

“I’m eight,” she says, squirming until he starts scratching the left. “And five months,” she adds, as though it’s important. Which, to them, it is. To people like Kuro,  who’s old enough for it to not matter, it doesn’t.

“I’m six and ten months,” Hyde says, sticking his tongue out as he gets a particularly tricky spot. She shivers and practically becomes putty in his hands. “So I’ll be catching up to you soon.”

She sends a smile over her shoulder, and it’s bright enough to make his cheeks heat up and him duck his head as she turns to face him. “I’ll tell you a secret,” she says. “My family is mafia. Those are  _ bad  _ people. We’re going up against another Family, and I think I’m their last resort. I just want everyone to stop fighting.”

Hyde pokes his head up. “I bet I can stop them from fighting!” he says, waving his arms around madly. “I’m super strong! When I get out of here, I’ll stop them, you’ll see!”

She giggles, pulling him into a hug. “That would be awesome, thank you!” she laughs, and Hyde laughs too.

It’s the beginning of something beautiful, he knows. It’s the beginning of his first friendship with someone outside of his family, someone who doesn’t know him inside and out at times.

He knows that Creator is watching him - he always does, stares with those cold cold eyes that makes him want to run until his legs give out - but he doesn’t care, not right now. Ophelia is laughing in his arms, the sound of it ringing like bells, and he thinks that the only way to make it better would be for his family to be here.

And maybe the Creator, too. He - is like their parent, after all, no matter how much he takes scalpels to their skin and runs tests. Hyde doesn’t love him - how can he, when he takes his family and brings them back hollow eyed - but he doesn’t hate him either, not like Kuro does.

Kuro doesn’t say it, but Hyde can see the way he seethes, the way he grinds his teeth together, the way he glares at Creator as he hugs whoever he came to get to his chest.

He doesn’t say it, but Hyde can see it.

 

\--

 

“Ophelia is amazing. She’s so smart, she can do  _ division.  _ Division, Hugh!”

Hugh makes a noise in the back of his throat, looking down at him fondly. “Is that so?”

“Yeah!” Hyde grabs his feet, rocking in back and forth in that stretch Creator makes them do. What’s it called - butterfly!

“And she’s  _ so pretty,  _ Hugh, she’s so pretty! Like Freyja but not! Her hair looks like butter and it’s so soft.

Hugh laughs, running a hand through Hyde’s hair gently. Hugh is ten, and he’s the second oldest - Kuro is fifteen and  _ constantly tired. _ Like right now - he’s sleeping with Lily held close to his chest. Hyde gives him a jealous look - lucky. He’d had his cuddle session with Kuro after he came back, but Creator tried to take Lily and Kuro fought him off. So now Kuro is keeping Lily close just in case Creator comes back.

“I’m sure she’s wonderful,” Hugh says, drawing Hyde’s wandering attention back to him. “I wouldn’t mind meeting her.”

“Ophelia is wonderful! And she’s pretty and smart and thinks I’m strong and I’m gonna marry her someday!”

At his declaration, Kuro snorts. “LIke that will happen,” he says sleepily. Lily yawns, holding tight with his little three year old fists.

Hyde is the fourth oldest, behind Jeje. Freyja and World End arrived a month apart, so they’re the same age at four. Jeje is nine, which is almost the same age as Ophelia

Hyde blows out a frustrated breath, glaring at his oldest brother. “I thought you were asleep!”

“I was,” Kuro replies dryly, holding Lily so he could keep sleeping as he sits up. “But your chattering woke me up.”

Hyde refuses to feel bad for waking up such a lazy bum. “Well, whatever! I’m gonna bring Ophelia here and protect her from her family and Kuro can protect us from Creator!”

Jeje looks up from his book, the thinnest blanket he could find draping over his head. Ever since he turned five he started to hide what his face looks like - Hyde only knows because Kuro is firm on the fact that he can’t sleep with a blanket on his face. “Really?” he asks. “Do you think you could really smuggle her in here without  _ him _ knowing?”

Hugh gives Jeje a frown. “Shush,” he says, and turns back to Hyde. “Kuro will protect all of us,” he soothes. “I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to protect Ophelia too.”

Hyde beams. “I knew it!”

 

\--

 

It’s two months, a week before his birthday, when he first hears the words.

_ Failed experiment. _

He doesn’t know who Creator means, but it grips his heart in terror. Creator could mean Kuro, Lily, Freyja and World End. he could mean Hugh, Jeje, Hyde himself, or -

Or Ophelia.

Ophelia hasn’t gotten any wings, and nothing about her has changed except for her height and her resilience, which is still nothing compared to Hyde.

Hyde knows what happens to failed experiments. He’s seen what happened to the cats.

He doesn’t know what to do beyond cling to Kuro, fear a stranglehold on his throat, and not answer when Kuro asks him what’s wrong. He can’t say it. Any one of them could die, any one of them could -

“Ophelia, we have to sneak back to Kuro,” Hyde says one day. “Ophelia, Creator is going to kill you.”

Ophelia has gotten worse these last months. Her cheeks are sunken and she’s constantly asking him to scratch her back. He thinks that her wings are trying to come in, but her skin is too tough now.

“Hyde, it’s fine,” she says with a smile that’s too relieved and too tired. “I’m fine with dying.”

“I’m not!” Hyde says, reaching as far as his arm lets him. “I’m not, Ophelia, we need to get back to Kuro, he’ll protect you-”

She catches his wrist.. “It will be okay,” she says firmly as the door opens. The gun is there in his hand, and it only confirms the suspicion Hyde had from day one. Ophelia is going to die and he can’t do anything. She’s going to die, she’s going to  _ die,  _ she’s  _ going to die - _

Creator raps on the bars. “Shush,” he says, voice cold, and then moves onto Ophelia’s cage. It’s gotten too small for her, too cramped, but she scrambles forward on hands and knees to look him in the eyes.

“Creator, please,” Hyde starts, begging, and Creator shoots a bullet at him. It misses - of course, it does, because Hyde isn’t a  _ failed experiment -  _ but it’s enough to make him quiet down.

“Are you ready?” Creator asks Hyde’s only friend, and she nods. Hyde lurges forward, arm jerking out in an attempt to block the inevitable, when -

Boom.

Blood goes flying and Ophelia’s face is missing as she slumps to the side and Hyde has her blood and brains on his face and -

He screams and he screams and he  _ screams. _

Ophelia is gone, she’s dead and Hyde can’t stop  _ screaming. _

Creator turns on his heel and disappears, leaving Hyde alone to scream himself to sleep.

 

\--

 

When he wakes up, it’s to Kuro yelling at Creator as Hugh and Jeje frantically try to clean Hyde’s face of dried blood.

“What the fuck is  _ wrong with you,  _ you sick bastard!”

Creator doesn’t do anything but stand there, hands in his pockets and eyes impassive. Kuro doesn’t stand down, teenage long limbs already swinging to punch him in the face, and Hyde starts to cry. He wants his older brother. He wants  _ Ophelia,  _ but Ophelia is gone, gone, gone.

“Kuro!” Hugh snaps, and Kuro stops in mid air. “Hyde needs you, get over here!’

Kuro’s at his side in an instant, sweeping him into his arms and washing away the blood as Hyde leans into his chest. “Kuro, he killed Ophelia,” Hyde says, and he sounds far, far away.

“Come near him again any time soon, and I’ll rip your throat out,” Kuro snarls at Creator, who merely blinks at him. “Come near  _ any of them,  _ and I’ll tear your guts out of your stomach.”

Creator shrugs bonelessly and steps out of the room, leaving Kuro growling at thin air, Hyde crying, and Hugh and Jeje trying to calm the rest down.

 

_ \-- _

 

Three years later, with a new baby brother in the room and Kuro standing, Hyde watches as he tears the wall down, and wonders why he didn’t do it before now.

**Author's Note:**

> (The reason being Kuro wasn't strong enough to do it until he was eighteen.)
> 
> Comments are always loved and brighten up my day and are saved in my Gmail.
> 
> Also! Here's my [Tumblr.](http://nikescaret.tumblr.com) Come visit and chat with me if you want!


End file.
